The printing industry has a long history. It is a major employer that provides good jobs for highly skilled and qualified workers. Currently, the sector responds to specific markets and local needs and, with millions of employees and billions of dollars in turnover, faces the challenges of technological change, digital communications and competition from large companies. Modern technologies and productivity capabilities have increased the possibility of providing a full range of services.

Categorizing the methods and terminology of the printing industry into a specific group allows us to gain a clear understanding of the concept of printing and the structure of all printing processes without getting lost.

In order to realize the slogan of being a knowledge-based company, our content production, technical services and support team, using the knowledge of domestic and foreign activists and elites in this industry, and in order to find the root of the problems, improve the processes and train the relevant operators, has collected and compiled definitions and specialized terms of the flexible printing and packaging industry.

Printing: Printing is a process for mass reproduction of text and images using the original form or template.

Helio or rotogravure printing (gravure printing): Gravure is a type of printing that used to be lead letters.

A metal cylinder that prints and engraves ink through a cylinder on the work. In helio printing, ink is printed through a hole on the work and each print has its own cylinder.

Flexo Printing: Flexo printing uses a tram, which is a raised surface like the studs of sneakers through which ink is printed on the work. Making clichés (such as gelatin stamps) in flexo takes less time and is more economical in lower print runs. The brightness and lightness of the print is determined by the size and size of the tram hole. The quality and speed are the main differences between rotogravure and flexo printing.

Flexible Packaging: Flexible packaging is any package or part of a package that can be easily changed in shape when filled or during use. Flexible packaging is made of paper, plastic, film, aluminum foil, or any combination of these materials and includes bags, pouches, liners, covers, roll stock, and other flexible products. All types of flexible packaging are made from “films,” or wrappers and cellophane.

Multilayer film: This type of packaging has the task of printing the name and advertising on the packaging and must protect the food from impact and pressure as well as environmental and bacterial factors. The first packaging films made were generally made of polypropylene and polyethylene. Given the diversity and differences in the protective needs of different products against the passage of moisture, carbon dioxide, oxygen and light through the films, other materials such as polyethylene terephthalate and polyvinyl alcohol have also been used as films. With the development of the printing industry and then in the lamination industry, these films were laminated together with polyurethane laminate adhesive so that they can meet multiple food protection needs at the same time.

Reverse printing or printing from below: In this case, the outermost layer is printed on the back and laminated to the rest of the multilayer structure. This method is preferred for the food industry because it ensures that the printing ink will not have any contact with the food product. Trap Print: Another term for reverse printing. “Trap printing” gets its name from the fact that the ink is trapped between the outer layer of the material and the substrate.

Surface Printing or Overprinting: A process in which the ink is placed directly on the outermost surface of the film or packaging material. This process is mostly used in short-run printing. A UV coating may be added to create a hard outer coating that prevents the printed ink from peeling or chipping.

Ink Drying Test / Cross Cut: Using this test, we can find out whether the ink layer is deep-dried or superficially dry. Cross lines are drawn on the printed surface and then removed with a blade, the lines are removed using tape.

Coefficient of Friction: Machinability is a combination of several properties, one of the most important of which is the coefficient of friction (COF). The coefficient of friction relates to the ability of a material to slide over itself, over the product, or over machine parts that come into contact with the material.

Barrier Properties: Almost all food and pharmaceutical packaging requires impermeability. Impermeability is the resistance to the passage of gases through a material, which varies depending on the type of gas.

Converter: Equipment that processes raw packaging such as cellophane, foil, etc. into a more advanced form, generally by forming, printing, gluing, laminating, etc.

Doctor Blade: The doctor blade removes excess ink from the smooth, unengraved areas of the anilox roll and the cell wall areas. These blades are also used in other printing and coating processes, such as flexo printing.

Dyne: A unit of force (centimeter-gram-second) traditionally used to quantify the energy on the surface of a film as an indicator of its ability to accept printing ink or laminating adhesive.

Corona Treatment: A treatment to change the surface of flexible packaging films and other materials to make them more receptive to printing inks.

Corona treatment increases the surface energy of the film by subjecting a plastic film to a high-frequency electrical discharge, thereby improving the adhesion of inks, laminate adhesives and wrappers. This process helps to ensure that printed or coated surfaces do not fade or lose their quality during use, making it an essential step in the production of high-quality flexible packaging.

Infrared / IR – Infra red: A radiation used in some heat tunnels for drying. The basis of this radiation is the creation of heat and is not used as radiation.

 Isopropyl alcohol: Using this alcohol can increase the quality of printing. Because: 1- Reduces surface tension. 2- Increases the concentration of the wetting solution. 3- Prevents emulsion. 4- Prevents the growth of fungal bacteria in the solution. 5- Prevents the rolls from getting greasy.

 Embossing: Embossing is done by applying pressure to the paper using punches and matrices, which are usually made of copper, zinc or hard photopolymer materials, in the form of a non-metallic material. Embossing is generally done through letterpress or die-cutting machines.

 Setting: Setting is a physical process and is actually the initial stage of ink drying in which the solvent evaporates and the ink is absorbed by the printed surface.

 Fillers/Extenders: Fillers are powdered substances added to adjust the fluidity properties of the compound and are usually white or colorless.

Moire effect: The overlapping of two identical grids produces regular and repetitive patterns, which are considered undesirable in printing. These patterns are often created during the lithography stage due to the incorrect angle of the grids in different colors.

Pigment: Pigments are colored powders that are used to make ink. Pigments are not dissolved in the resin, but are dispersed in it. This resulting mixture usually also has a backing.

Halftone screening: Converting digital information and images from pixel form to dot format, so that the gray shades of the image are created by placing dots with equal distances but different sizes next to each other.

Pixel images: are those digital images that are made up of a grid (pixels).

Grayscale images: Images that include midtones in addition to black and white.

Line art images: Images that consist only of black and white tones and do not have midtones of gray.

Computer to plate technology: An achievement that was created to shorten the pre-printing path and enable the direct production of a printing plate from a digital file. CTP systems have eliminated film from the pre-printing process. Therefore, they also reduce the overall preparation time of the print job and increase the accuracy of the plate. (Design unit)

Toner: A pigment used to mask or correct an unwanted color in the printing ink.

Contact printing: All conventional printing methods in which relatively high mechanical pressure is applied to the printable surface are called contact printing.

Direct printing: In this method, the printed surface comes into contact with the printing form. For example, letterpress, cliché, gold plate, flexo, gravure.

Dot gain: The enlargement of the dot, which can occur during the lithography stage due to the high time and temperature of the developing agent on the film.

Total dot gain: The difference between the dot percentage in the film stage and the printing on paper is called total dot gain.

Creasing: Uneven moisture content in the paper causes it to wrinkle at the edges of the paper and the back of the printed images. If the edges of the paper are wavy, wrinkles will form at the corners of the paper. If the edges of the paper are hard and dry, wrinkles will form in the center of the paper. The solution is to leave the paper in the environment for a while before opening and using it so that the temperature of the environment and the paper become the same.

Ink-rub: This usually occurs when printing photos and images on matte paper. In this case, the ink remains wet on the paper for more than necessary and causes it to rub off or rub onto the next paper in subsequent stages.

Tack: The adhesion of the ink components to each other. This feature is important when printing on paper and when printing multiple colors on top of each other. If the resistance of the ink film on the rubber is low against breakage, the clarity is lost, and if it is high (set-off), it causes set-off.

Hichies: A blank spot on the image or plate, which is caused by the transfer of ink or paper particles through the water roller or ink rollers to the printed surface. This problem can occur in all printing methods. Prevention methods include: changing the ink, changing the water roller, installing a rubber cleaning agent called hickey remover, cleaning the surface contamination, and finally changing the paper.

Density: The degree of darkness or lightness of a transparent or opaque area is called and is measured based on the amount of light absorbed or transmitted through it.

Solid ink density: The density of a 100% plate is called the ink density of the plate.

Tone value increase: The increase in the diameter of the tram at different stages before and during printing is called tram fatness.

Densitometer: A tool for measuring the density of different points of the film or print.

Resin: Polymeric compounds that are responsible for forming the film (layer) of the ink and usually come in three forms: honeycomb, granular, and flaky, which are converted into a liquid by adding a solvent. Resins act as a carrier for holding the pigment and other auxiliary materials in the ink.

Process Colors: Colors that are combined with each other to create various colors and ultimately reach a color gamut, the most famous of which is the CMYK color model.

Front and reverse side of the paper: The side of the paper that faces the felt in the papermaking plant and is the smoothest, the back of the paper is the side that is under the work and on the drain in the papermaking plant. The printed paper will be of better quality. The printed paper will be printed in color.

Pantone color date system: The information of the Pantone color system is stored in spectrophotometers as electronic data.

Pixelation: The checkered condition in an image, bitmap, is said to be caused by the small number of pixels and the resulting large size of the pixels.

Lintin: These patterns are caused by the presence of paper lint on the rubber. Especially in newsprint and uncoated papers.

PDF/Portable Document Format: This format is used as a communication format in pre-press systems. PDF is a digital file based on the PostScript language that contains all the information related to layout and format. This format is now also capable of storing XML codes.

Job Definition Format / JDF / Job Definition Format: A type of file based on XML technology that contains all the details of the production order for a printed subject and its mission is to create convergence between the production and commercial departments of a printing house in order to achieve maximum automation in the process of registering the order to delivering the final printed product to the customer.

Kraft paper / Kraft paper: This type of paper is often made from unbleached pulp prepared by the sulfate method. In terms of mechanical strength, they are the strongest pulp and are mainly used as packaging paper. It is worth noting that Kraft pulp is also added to other pulps to improve mechanical strength.

Color variation: It refers to unwanted color changes during printing that occur for various reasons such as: dot gain, color overlap, paper stock, uneven color intensity and ink feeding.

Cutting edge: The line on which the cutting machine cuts the printed forms after folding.

Magnifying glass: A magnifying glass used to control and detect the percentage of film and print work. The standard distance from the base to the magnifying glass is such that the image is completely clear, and its types also have different magnification powers.

RGB color model: Scanners, monitors, and any other hardware device that uses light to produce color usually use three colors, red, green, and blue, to describe and specify its characteristics. Therefore, the color model that can be described by these three colors of light is called the RGB model.

HSB/Hue Saturation Brightness color model – A type of device-independent color model that describes colors in a way similar to the human eye.

CMYK/CMYK color model – A color model based on the four main components is called cmyk (cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), black (K))

Ink: A dispersion of colored solids in a liquid phase with the addition of additives. It is made from a combination of pigment, resin, solvent, and additives.

Gravure inks: These are very fluid inks that settle very quickly on the plate holes. Due to the high speed of the printing machine, these inks also contain fast-evaporating solvents.

UV curing inks: These are a group of compounds that are chemically sensitive to ultraviolet light and, immediately after printing, undergo chemical reactions when exposed to ultraviolet light, which leads to their hardening.

Stabilizing agents: Such as metal salts that are added to PVC during the extrusion process, for example, to form a stable film.

Slip agents: Additives that are used to facilitate the movement and passage of plastic films during their production or conversion.

Anti-static agents: These substances are usually ammonia compounds used as additives to reduce static electricity.

Microscope: A specialized tool for measuring the thickness of the frame, the thickness of the line, and the size of the holes and frames in the heliogravure section.

Micrometer: A very precise measuring tool used to measure the thickness of paper, film, austerlon, and other delicate objects.

Halftone: Halftone means half-shade and refers to the films with frames, works that contain different shades of gray and are separated by the frame and prepared for printing.

Varnish: It is the same colorless printing ink and does not contain pigment and is placed on the printed surface as a protective coating or as a special effect creator.

Viscosimeter: A device for measuring the concentration of the ink. This device is used in ink laboratories.

UV/UV Ultra Violet: Ultraviolet radiation is used in the drying process of UV inks, apart from creating a visual sensation, it is also used as a protective layer on the printed work. This spectrum of light is used in the pre-printing, printing and post-printing stages.

OTR – Oxygen Transmission Rate: The OTR of plastic materials varies significantly with humidity, so it must be specified. Standard test conditions are 0, 60 or 100% relative humidity.

Cold Seal or Cold Stitch: A pressure-sensitive adhesive coating on flexible films or wrappers that allows packages to be sealed by applying pressure (without heat or minimal heat).

Extrusion Lamination: A lamination process in which individual layers of multi-layer packaging materials are laminated together by extruding a thin layer of molten synthetic resin (such as polyethylene) between the layers.

Heatseal Layer: The innermost sealable layer in flexible packaging films and wrappers.

Heatseal Strength: The strength of a heat seal measured after the seal has cooled.

Chemical Resistance: The ability of a material to maintain its function and appearance after exposure to chemical agents. Chemical resistance indicates that there is no significant chemical activity between the contacting materials.

Blocking: The undesirable adhesion of two or more layers of material in roll or sheet form. May occur in cellophane as a result of exposure to excessive heat, pressure, or moisture. In printed film, it is occasionally caused by improper or insufficient drying of inks, resulting in printed areas sticking together.

Anti-Block: A term for a treatment applied to the surfaces of plastic film to prevent them from sticking together or “blocking” when tightly wound on a mandrel.

Aseptic: Free from septic substances or disease-causing bacteria. In food processing and packaging, this is an adjective that describes a system used to package food in a sterile manner.

Barrier: In packaging, this term is most commonly used to describe the ability of a material to stop or delay the passage of atmospheric gases, water vapor, and volatile flavor and aroma substances. A barrier material is a material that is designed to prevent the penetration of water, oil, water vapor, or certain gases, to a specified or desired extent. Barrier materials may be used to exclude or retain such elements without packaging or within packaging.

Delamination: The separation or splitting of laminate layers caused by poor adhesion or insufficient lamination adhesive, or by mechanical disturbances such as peeling or shearing forces.

Cross-Linking: A film conversion technique in which polymer chains are linked into a network or lattice to increase the stability and thermal strength of the wrapper.

Polymer – A compound formed by the bonding of simple, identical molecules with functional groups that allow their combination to reach higher molecular weights under appropriate conditions.